Gallery: Explore the Red Planet with Nasa's Mars Trek

Nasa has created its very own Google Earth for Mars, allowing you to roam the surface of the Red Planet whilst keeping your feet very firmly on Earth.

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Mars Trek is an interactive map, composed of images taken from a number of past missions. You can choose to view the planet in either 2D or 3D, zoom in on specific areas and switch views: north polar, south polar and global.

The website also offers a range of nifty tools to help you explore the virtual landscape. "Bookmarks" offers high-resolution data for historical sites of interest, such as the landing spots of famous Mars rovers. You can also flag a whole host of valleys, volcanoes and other interesting Martian landforms as you navigate the terrain.

You can start your Mars tour on your computer or smartphone, and given that this is the closest we're due to get to the planet until Nasa's proposed 2016 InSight landing mission, you might want to make the most of your stay.